Army rebels loyal to former president André Kolingba attempted to overthrow the government on May 28, 2001. The mutineers, reportedly aided by several hundred Rwandan and Angolan mercenaries, attacked the Bangui palace of Pres. Ange-Félix Patassé; the assault resulted in at least 20 deaths. The government received swift military assistance from Libya, and reinforcements also arrived from Chad and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); those from the latter were a group seeking to overthrow the DRC government. Fighting continued in the capital for more than a week, and unofficial estimates put the number of persons killed at between 250 and 300. Many rebel soldiers caught by government forces were thought to have been summarily executed. On June 7 the government claimed complete success at suppressing the coup, although sporadic outbreaks of violence continued. Kolingba and other suspected coup leaders remained at large. The government appealed for relief supplies to aid the nearly 80,000 people who had fled the fighting.

Kolingba’s Central African Democratic Rally, once the sole legal political party, was ordered dissolved on June 22. Accused of implication in the coup attempt, Defense Minister Jean-Jacques Demafouth was dismissed on August 25. Two days later Kolingba’s wife and children were abducted from the French embassy in Bangui, where they, along with an estimated 300 others, had taken refuge after the coup. Their fate was unknown.

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